‘Feel Good’ Fundraising - Hiking the Himalayas

I absolutely love the Himalayas, so vast, so beautiful, so natural. So imagine my delight when I read the incredible tale of Jennifer Cramond, who crushed a two-week trek in the Himalayas, whilst battling serious altitude sickness. Fierce!

Jennifer is raising money for The Brain Tumour Charity, in recognition of the critical support and resources they put in place for people like her dear friend, Harry. Harry resides in Australia and has received support from the BTTA. Since they met in 2015, Harry has been battling recurring brain tumours and his fight continues.

Jennifer has a UK and an Australia GoFundMe open for her incredible fundraiser. I’ve been keeping track of her progress and wanted to reach out and find out how it went:

What did your training regime look like before the challenge?

“It's near to impossible to train for the high altitude from home. There are altitude chambers in some places in the UK but I couldn't access one, and many people say they can never prepare you for the real altitude when there. I had been told cardio was really important for training, which wasn't a normal choice of mine in the gym. I did up my hours in the gym and did a lot of leg strength work and a lot of time on the stairmaster machine, which I think really helped. I lost a stone in weight while there due to getting altitude sickness and not eating much for a number of days, but still burning about 3000 calories a day!

I was extremely busy with work leading up to my trek (a major conference I was organising in London) so I did less hill walking training than I would have liked, due to not having the free days at the weekends. I did get out in the Pentland Hills in Edinburgh and a few munros when I could though. I am a regular walker anyway and keep fit and healthy.

It was risky but I bought a new pair of ON branded walking boots only a couple of months before I went (and they aren't something I can go to the gym in!!) so they didn't get much breaking in, but I went for a boot that had great reviews and comments that they don't need breaking in.

I had a major foot injury leading up to my trek which I was extremely worried about. I have a Morton’s neuroma in my foot which I have lived with for a year or so, but I thought I should get a cortisone injection into it before my trek to avoid it flaring up and getting worse when in Nepal. I got this about 6 weeks before I flew, but something with the injection went wrong and the pain in my foot ended up about 10x worse than the original pain! It never went away during the trek and to this day, is still very painful. I got a prescription from a GP the week before I flew for strong painkillers, and I was taking them regularly when on my trek.”

Beyond staring at the beautiful vistas, what did you do about entertainment through this lengthy trek?

“I assumed I would read a lot over the 2 weeks as I knew there was a lot of 'sitting around' time after each day of walking. I bought 6 books on my Kindle. I only read one during the whole time, which I couldn't believe!!  I was with my guide/sherpa most of the time, and his English was very good, so when we were back in the teahouse each afternoon/evening, we chatted away. We played cards every day. I also chatted to other hikers who ranged from many countries - generally across Europe and also America.

I had so many interesting conversations. This is one reason I love to travel and meet folk from other countries - I enjoy asking them questions about their country and cultures, learning as much as I can from them. As I spent the most time with my guide, Sudip, who is from Kathmandu in Nepal, I learned so much about Nepal and the Nepalese people, which I found fascinating. The Nepalese are the kindest bunch of people I have ever met, and I have travelled many countries. It is a very poor country but everyone is so genuine and kind.

I had access to electricity, but at most teahouses you have to pay to use it. Most are relying on solar power, so it's understandable that we can't all just charge as many devices as we wanted for free. So I could charge my kindle, phone (read: my camera) and my charging bank. Wifi was available at MOST teahouses and, again, you had to pay to get access to this.”

You were climbing various peaks over the course of two weeks, how did you divide your time? 

“Once I reached 4100m, I got really bad altitude sickness. We had to therefore come down 1000m and hope that my body would recover, which would allow us to start climbing back up. I was so worried for about 24 hours, when I felt my worst, that I would not recover and have to come down completely via helicopter rescue. I was so upset at this thought, and felt I had let down so many people, although I knew deep down that my sponsors would understand, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Altitude sickness is really serious, and it can kill you if you keep going up when ill. I did luckily start to feel better, but sadly this wasted too many of our days and it meant I did not have enough time to still hike the original route and peaks that I had planned. Therefore we changed the route and I did make it to Everest Base Camp, but sadly I did not manage the other peaks. On the day we were getting to Everest Base Camp, we were still running out of time, so we had to cram in about two days of walking into one, so that day was really long and really hard - I was still very much recovering from being ill, and had only eaten one apple and one bit of bread the whole day. I believe the adrenaline of knowing I was so close and wanting to get to base camp so much, that took over and helped my body get there. When starting to walk down the next day, I remember feeling so shocked at seeing how far I had climbed the previous day and not understanding how I managed it.”

I’m in awe. You smashed this challenge Jennifer, and I am delighted to include that Jennifer is feeling a lot better now, which is fantastic news!

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